rry within their own bosoms a
higher law than this higher law itself. But how Dr. Wayland, as an
enlightened member of the good old orthodox Baptist Church, with whom
the Scripture is really and in truth the inspired word of God, would
have disposed of it, we are at some loss to conceive.

We labor under no such difficulty. The words in question do not relate
to slaves owned by Hebrew masters. They relate to those slaves only who
should escape from heathen masters, and seek an asylum among the people
of God. "The first inquiry of course is," says a learned divine,[168]
"in regard to those very words, 'Where does his master live?' Among the
Hebrews, or among foreigners? The language of the passage fully develops
this and answers the question. 'He has escaped from his master unto the
Hebrews; (the text says--_thee_, _i. e._ Israel;) _he shall dwell with
thee, even among you . . . in one of thy gates_.' Of course, then, he is
an _immigrant_, and did _not dwell among them_ before his flight. If he
had been a Hebrew servant, belonging to a Hebrew, the whole face of the
thing would be changed. Restoration, or restitution, if we may judge by
the tenor of other property-laws among the Hebrews, would have surely
been enjoined. But, be that as it may, the language of the text puts it
beyond a doubt that the servant is a _foreigner_, and has fled from a
_heathen master_. This entirely changes the complexion of the case. The
Hebrews were God's chosen people, and were the only nation on earth
which worshiped the only living and true God. . . . . In case a slave
escaped from them (the heathen) and came to the Hebrews, two things were
to be taken into consideration, according to the views of the Jewish
legislator. The first was that the treatment of slaves among the heathen
was far more severe and rigorous than it could lawfully be under the
Mosaic law. The heathen master possessed the power of life and death, of
scourging or imprisoning, or putting to excessive toil, even to any
extent that he pleased. Not so among the Hebrews. _Humanity_ pleaded
there for the protection of the fugitive. The second and most important
consideration was, that only among the Hebrews could the fugitive slave
come to the knowledge and worship of the only living and true God."

Now this view of the passage in question harmonizes one portion of
Scripture with another, and removes every difficulty. It shows, too, how
greatly the abolitionists have deceived t